Myers was a dentist who enjoyed his job so much that he inspired two of his five children to follow his professional path.

“He’d get up every day excited,” says daughter Serese Myers Cannon, a Kansas City dentist. Like her brother, Sere S. Myers Jr., who has a dental practice in Colorado, she learned a lot from watching her father grow his business and working with him, before and after earning a dental degree.

Born in Oklahoma, Sere moved with his family to Kansas City as a small child. Here he graduated in 1946 from Lincoln High and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College in 1950. From there, he served in the military during the Korean War and received his dental training afterward at Howard University.

An easy manner:

Being a successful dentist requires an entrepreneurial spirit and a winning manner.

Sere had both. His practice grew to 12 chairs, and he was a favorite with patients.

“Everyone described him as fun-loving and easy-going,” Serese said. “He would kind of tease you to get you to talk.” With medical doctors, that’s known as an easy, bedside manner. And her father’s approach?

“I call it folksy professional.”

Committed to his community:

Sere practiced dentistry for more than 50 years before retiring several years ago. From 1959 to 1961, he was chief of dental surgery at Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka. But thereafter, he spent his career in the town where he grew up.

Sere built his practice in Kansas City’s urban core, first in a two-story building at 4134 Prospect Ave. He and his wife of 56 years, MaryJane, lived upstairs early on with three of what would grow to a family of five children. Later, some 35 years ago, he built the sprawling brick clinic, which employed five or six dentists at times, that still bears his name at 5240 Prospect Ave.

“He felt it was his calling to have his practice there in the community, and he wanted his patients to have the best care he could provide,” MaryJane said.

Family and fun:

Despite working long hours, Sere always made time for his children, attending their many activities, MaryJane said. He and MaryJane traveled all over the United States and abroad.

Sere helped young dentists get started in their careers and counseled other young people to pursue their dreams through education. “He would say that, no matter whether you’re sweeping floors or cleaning cabinets, do not be ignorant,” son Stewart said.

Survivors include:

his wife, five children and four grandchildren.

Final thought: “He was a good person,” MaryJane said. “He wanted to move people forward and lift them up.”